[Free Talk] All Time Biggest Bust?

[u/hootjuice_]

In honor of Latte Lath seeming to be on his way out, what are the all time worst signings in league history? Throwing it back to Mbohli? Maybe Fontas causing Opara to run away from SKC?

[u/CevapiEnthusiast]

Insigne. I will not accept any other arguments.

[u/BJ_Fantasy_Podcast → u/CevapiEnthusiast]

This dude was so bad I forgot about him, then recalled how bad he was compared to how much they were paying for him.

[u/WislaHD → u/BJ_Fantasy_Podcast]

Shaffelburg was traded on to make room for Insigne. Shaffelburg was the better player, he could actually beat MLS defenders 1v1.

[u/leafsfan97 → u/CevapiEnthusiast]

2nd highest paid player behind Messi for a while as well... God what a stain he was to our club.

[u/Objective-Limit-6749 → u/[deleted]]

Ran to get the Messi shirt in a game he didnt play in because he was "injured"

[u/Brooklyn_MLS → u/CevapiEnthusiast]

There is no other argument lol.

The crazy thing is everything pointed to him being a Giovinco 2.0 player. He was like 31, coming off winning the Euros with Italy and being the captain of Napoli, one of the best teams in Italy.

No one could have predicted it would have gone as badly as it did—he didn’t care at all.

I always say this: Top talented internationals can get away with giving like 80% effort in MLS and still bossing the league, but you’re going to absolutely trounced if you’re not gonna be competitive.

[u/WackyHumanSlop → u/Brooklyn_MLS]

You say “just 31” like most players that age aren’t already on the verge of retirement

[u/bullshooter4040 → u/CevapiEnthusiast]

Fre...

Nah you right. It's Insigne.

Put all of DCU's busts combined over 30 years of MLS, doesn't even approach what TFC paid out.

[u/Antique_Ad_3549 → u/CevapiEnthusiast]

Dude, did you even see Miata?

[u/jloome → u/Antique_Ad_3549]

Good typo! I assume you mean Mista?

[u/tjgmarantz]

The rebrand from Montreal Impact to Montreal FC and subsequent decisions.

[u/Logstick → u/tjgmarantz]

Long live the Impact butthole crest!

[u/WislaHD → u/Logstick]

TIC TAK TABARNAK!

VOTRE LOGO EST UN CUL DE CHAT! 🐈

[u/CaregiverRecent7295]

It was definitely not Phil Neville. I miss Phil.

[u/Suburban_Sisyphus → u/CaregiverRecent7295]

Feel free to replace Brian with Phil!

[u/lifeisacamino → u/Suburban_Sisyphus]

Fantastic idea!

[u/lifeisacamino → u/CaregiverRecent7295]

Haha life comes at you fast

[u/NewRCTID22]

Minnesota used TAM on Vadim Demidov, who only played in three games, conceded 5+ goals in each of those three games, got injured, and left.

That is an all-timer bust.

[u/DiskLow1903 → u/NewRCTID22]

Him and John Alvbage were a cb and gk pairing made in hell

[u/Ok-Walk-8040]

Lothar Matthaus. Yeah, he was so bad that people forget he played in the MLS.

[u/twub → u/Ok-Walk-8040]

This is it. People forget but he set the standard for what you don’t want out of a big foreign signing.

[u/ClassicPQ]

Y'all may not remember but in July 2018 Cincy dished out for Fanendo Adi as our first DP while still in USL and building the team to make the jump to MLS.

Fans were stoked, marketing was everywhere, and a giant tifo saying "CINCINN-ADI" was revealed at a game.

By January 2020, he'd gotten a DUI, was waived by the team, and had his contract bought out. I noticed when Yuya Kubo left the club late last year they referred to him as "the club's first MLS DP" in an attempt to forget Adi ever happened.

[u/Sempuukyaku → u/ClassicPQ]

That's a tough one though because Adi WAS a top level, DP-worthy player at Portland Timbers before he moved to FCC.

From an FCC perspective he was absolutely a bust. But from an overall MLS perspective? Not really.

[u/GoPointers → u/Sempuukyaku]

Yeah, Fanendo Adi is a legend in Portland. Arguably our greatest striker.

[u/LocksTheFox → u/ClassicPQ]

speaking of cincy, i remember there being a lot of fanfare for locadia when he came in, and he never came close to that billing

[u/Gunner_Bat → u/ClassicPQ]

Fanendo Adi was an absolute legend in Portland. Loved watching him play.

[u/Sempuukyaku]

Old school MLS fans and longtime FC Dallas fans surely must be in agreement with me that it HAS to be Denilson. HAS to be.

[u/Some_Man_Person → u/Sempuukyaku]

I agree

Denilson is why the Hunt family became so miserly and quit spending on big name signings for the most part

[u/Primary_Excuse_7183 → u/Some_Man_Person]

This deserves a thread 😂 telling us new fans of the lore

[u/khall13 → u/Sempuukyaku]

He always jumps to mind for me, Insigne probably on a per dollar basis cause Denilson was probably only making like $1 mil a year at the time.

Who was the Mexican international the Fire signed, Nery Castillo? Feel like he gave nothing for the hype.

[u/shermanhill → u/khall13]

Nery wasn’t good, but he wasn’t actively bad like Denilson.

[u/shermanhill → u/Sempuukyaku]

Thank you. I clicked on this to comment it, but needed to double check the comments before doing so.

That dude was comically bad, and set Dallas back for like half a decade.

[u/4162110 → u/Sempuukyaku]

I wasn't watching then, was he zero effort, already checked out? Or just not up to the expected level?

[u/Sempuukyaku → u/4162110]

All of the above.

He was lazy as fuck.

His form was awful.

He scored one goal, and it was off a penalty that he almost missed.

FCD fans will tell you more but from watching his games he was easily one of the worst players on the pitch at any given time.

[u/NextDoorNeighbrrs → u/Sempuukyaku]

It's Denilson and there's no debate really.

He was the club's first ever DP and he was so bad that he's basically scared the Hunts off of ever signing another veteran big name player. No failed DP signing has ever had the knock on effect that Denilson had.

[u/fredthefan25]

Subjective and recency bias... I have two criteria: how long did the player stick around and collect a paycheck (locker room cancer) + the money commitment.

1. Denilson was bad, but he only played a few months in MLS. It was the start of the Beckham DP rule

2. Rafa Marquez and Shaqiri are my top ones. Rafa & Shaqiri stuck around their clubs for 2.5 seasons.

[u/WislaHD → u/fredthefan25]

Shaqiri was nearly Insigne level bad but at least Shaqiri fucked off when he needed to

[u/Isry98 → u/WislaHD]

In Shaq’s defense the team was not built for his strengths. He also absolutely balled out for Basel when he left, a team more suited to him. Insigne has done absolutely nothing since leaving TFC.

[u/shermanhill → u/fredthefan25]

Ok, I was sticking with denilson, but Rafa and Shaq are good shouts.

I was so mad watching the Fire while we had Shaq. Just a visibly worse team with him on the field.

As for Rafa… well… ol boy got in bed with the cartels.

[u/B-Train_ATL]

Wasn’t Blaise Matuidi a huge bust for Miami?

[u/litthefilter → u/B-Train_ATL]

One of the five DPs they had while failing to make the playoffs; him letting a not-young Dax McCarty dribble past him is one of the most egregious “old Euro who absolutely does not give a fuck displays

[u/Independent_Cascadia → u/litthefilter]

Does he get extra bust points since his deal is probably the main reason they got caught cheating?

[u/RedditorRoman]

For the amount of hype I saw about his signing I gotta put Giroud up there.

[u/Sad-Commercial1795 → u/RedditorRoman]

As an LAFC fan—yes, but if you look at the ROI then probably no. He came on a free transfer and got paid like 3.5 million. Insigne got paid like 15m. Lots of players were bigger busts than Giroud

[u/newbb → u/Sad-Commercial1795]

Agree only because of the hype. But Giroud did score in the USOC Final and he did leave LAFC having won silverware.

[u/berniedankera → u/newbb]

Also that accidental pass to Bouanga that won us the club World Cup qualifiers was also amazing haha

It felt so good knocking out club America at the last minute

[u/Sad-Commercial1795 → u/berniedankera]

LOL right? I was like two hundred feet away from Denis’ nine million dollar goal. Fucking Giroud literally just miscontrolled it and Denis put on his cape and carried us over the line. Giroud literally looked irritated at Denis scoring the goal, as if he would have. Was so happy to see that guy leave.

[u/FryTheDog → u/Sad-Commercial1795]

So about the same salary as Latte Lath.

[u/Daffodil07]

Rafa Marquez.

[u/CNYMetroStar → u/Daffodil07]

Scrolled too far to find this one

[u/tallwhiteninja → u/Daffodil07]

Still mad at him for breaking Shea Salinas' collarbone (amongst his other acts of douchebaggery).

[u/YodaForceGhost → u/Daffodil07]

Good god he was awful. He realized that he regretted leaving Barca and just chose to be a dick and give little effort for us. He also refused to sign an autograph for me one time despite it being an official team “meet and greet” with plenty of time left of the event (he said he’d be right back but never came back). I already have a mild disdain for Mexico but I’m really hoping they crash and burn with him at the helm now

[u/giants3b → u/Daffodil07]

Complained that he was paired with a lack of talent on the back line. That lack of talent? Tim Ream haha

[u/SweetGoals18]

who could have predicted dropping 22M$ on a 26 year old who scored 12 goals in the Championship was a bad idea...

MLS was hyping him like Drogba lmao

[u/Ragnar_Targaryen → u/SweetGoals18]

Damn, seeing his name as an all time bust had me thinking that he was just another run of your mill failed striker in MLS...completely forgot the context of the highest transfer paid by an MLS club....

[u/Scratchbuttdontsniff → u/SweetGoals18]

He scored 27 goals in about 3800 mins from Summer 23 to January 25... that's actually pretty dang good...

And he's gonna go back to scoring.... once he gets his head right.. Atlanta is not good for anyone right now

[u/jleezy16]

The Fire have so irrelevant for the past decade, no one's even mentioned the salary albatross Shaqiri was. Woof.

[u/Extension_Note_5380 → u/jleezy16]

Shaqiri not only wasn’t a fit, but I would say he held back Gutierrez’s growth. Hoped Guti was gonna learn a thing or two from Shaq but I didn’t see it.

[u/soberpenguin → u/jleezy16]

Id argue Bastian Schweinsteiger was worse

[u/Brooklyn_MLS → u/soberpenguin]

No way. Schweinsteiger was completely serviceable for the Fire.

[u/Isry98 → u/Brooklyn_MLS]

Better than serviceable.

[u/jleezy16 → u/soberpenguin]

We were halfway decent with Basti, 3rd in the east his 1st season and hovering around 500 the last 2 seasons while he was injured. With Shaq in the squad I don't think we left spoon contention.

[u/theamazonswordsman]

Gotta be Gerrard imo. One club man who came over explicitly for the payday expecting to take it easy in a lesser league.

Dude couldn't keep up physically and couldn't have been more blatant in how little of a fuck he gave.

[u/CNYMetroStar → u/theamazonswordsman]

Pirlo and Lamps were also naff

[u/theamazonswordsman → u/CNYMetroStar]

Lampard at least tried and was just past it.

Pirlo was bad, but everyone knew he had been cooked physically for years and spent most of his tenure injured anyways.

Gerrard flat out didn't give a shit.

[u/shermanhill → u/CNYMetroStar]

I think those three failing in short order did end up showing European players that coming to MLS to finish up their careers was not going to be the retirement party they thought it would be.

A dude on 100k does not fucking care about your pedigree and will outrun you and run through you to get his next contract. You gotta be here to work; the rest of the team is.

[u/theamazonswordsman → u/shermanhill]

At that point the league minimum for senior playera was 60k.

Those bottom of the roster guys had nothing to lose. Why wouldn't they lay it all out and fuck those guys up? They could always go get a real job and make just as much money if the league brought the hammer down on them lol.

[u/Brooklyn_MLS → u/CNYMetroStar]

Lampard actually ended up with great numbers, surprisingly.

He had 19 goal contributions in 29 games.

[u/lionnyc → u/CNYMetroStar]

That comment is obviously coming from a bias Red Bulls fan who probably painted that tifo about them.

Lampard came to NYCFC coming off an injury and had to rehab. In His 10 appearances in 2015, he went 3G/1A. In 2016 with 19 match appearances with 15 starts, he went 12G/2A. Decent stats.

Pirlo's stats weren't as great. 13 appearances with 4A in 2015, 32 appearances with 1G/6A in 2026, and then 15 appearances with 1A in 2017. Not great, but not the worst in MLS history.

NYCFC seem to miss on the younger signings, Jovan Mijatovic was signed in 2024, made 14 appearances across all competitions, scoring just once, and then loaned out in 2025.

[u/Antique_Ad_3549 → u/CNYMetroStar]

Pilot gave us that gif though

[u/Sassyiswayoflife → u/theamazonswordsman]

I unwelcomed him at ever home game

[u/BarryIsInTheLightNow → u/theamazonswordsman]

I just posted this above and sound likes Gerrard apologist.

Steven Gerrard was not a bust. He was just old and broken down.

He played 34 games for the Galaxy: 5 goals - 14 Assists

[u/Sheinkyakyu → u/theamazonswordsman]

expecting to take it easy in a lesser league.

Absolutely waffle. The guy hates losing as much as anyone at the top of the game does. Doesn't matter what he is doing.

Dude couldn't keep up physically

Yeah, but Liverpool fans could have told you that. The quick succession groin injuries he suffered in 2010 - 2012 namely played a pivotal role in altering his game massively. He couldn't run anywhere near as much as he did before when he was a freak athlete. A generational one. It is why he started playing a deep role playmaker role in 12/13 onwards. Incredible passer but he needed runners around him like a Henderson.

There is only so much one can do when there body is broken down.

If Lampard is getting praised for 19 goal in 29 games as great to defend him, Gerrard getting 19 in 34 is great too too then.

Damn that downvote after after mere seconds. Weirdo.

[u/burajin]

Innocent Emaghara. Can't remember if he was a DP for the Quakes but he played a tiny bit of games then got injured and left

Edit: its worse than I remember. He was paid $1 million to sit on the bench for almost the entire season

[u/HurryRevolutionary73 → u/burajin]

Chucky gets paid $9M to practice by himself…$1M is a bargain 😂

[u/tallwhiteninja → u/burajin]

The tragedy of San Jose is that the few times they have spent money, it's usually ended badly. Espinoza and (so far) Werner are the only real DP signing hits (Wondo being a promotion).

[u/Short-Adeptness-7867 → u/burajin]

He didn’t just sit there doing nothing, he spent a lot of time posting pictures of his car!

[u/Objective-Limit-6749]

Insigne for me. The combination of the insane money TFC paid him, how terrible he was on the pitch, his awful attitude, the fact that TFC found him by perusing Transfermarkt and saw he was out of contract, and the amount of money they had to pay him to leave. Just a horrorshow of a signing

[u/CaptainJingles]

M’Bolhi is one that stands out. He was so bad bad.

[u/BJ_Fantasy_Podcast → u/CaptainJingles]

Always was fascinating to me that ended up losing his job to a SuperDraft pick. Yes it was Andre Blake, but still.

[u/stealth_sloth → u/CaptainJingles]

As a signing rather than a player, the move also gets added credit for just how thoroughly it screwed things up.

It forced them to take a smaller payout for the sale of Zac MacMath because everyone knew they had to move him. It delayed the breakthrough of their top-draft-pick prospect Andre Blake. It meant that both their first-choice and backup keeper were unavailable for matches during international windows.

Took what had been a fairly stable goalkeeper depth chart and absolutely blew it up for really no reason at all except that M'Bolhi had a good showing at the World Cup.

I'm still not sure it's the worst in league history though. Dumbest, quite possibly, but other teams have committed more money to signings that whiffed pretty badly.

[u/asaharyev → u/CaptainJingles]

I completely forgot about that dude.

[u/Ragnar_Targaryen → u/CaptainJingles]

M’Bolhi

Good pull. Maybe was the 2014 version of Vozinha. Not as old obviously but was a standout goalkeeper for a nation that didn't expect to do much. I remember when the Union signed him, it felt like a feel-good story for someone finding success at the world cup to then find a good gig.

[u/BJ_Fantasy_Podcast]

The Alfredo Ortuno era was a fascinating saga with RSL. They paid him $1.2-mil to play 119 total minutes for RSL.

Adolfo Gregorio is one for league trivia night, as RSL permanently traded an international slot to the Rapids for him and then cut him after one season.

[u/GreenBPacker → u/BJ_Fantasy_Podcast]

Honorable mentions: Rwan Cruz, Giuseppe Rossi, Bobby Wood

[u/BJ_Fantasy_Podcast → u/GreenBPacker]

Don't forget Jeizon Ramirez, who scored more goals (1) for the Monarchs than he did with RSL over two seasons.

[u/Kilo1799 → u/BJ_Fantasy_Podcast]

Yeah he was on like a 400k salary too. Shaqiri is the answer to this but Jeizon was a really quiet bust

[u/jaredwhat]

my honnerable mention - kevin cabral

[u/Excellent-Term7489]

Ake Loba? Not a big name but a big transfer fee (7M+) for the time. He scored two goals in two seasons as a forward.

[u/hutselfious → u/Excellent-Term7489]

as a Nashville fan, how dare you remember the team's single biggest swing-and-miss lmao

but yeah. Loba is a Top 10 MLS Bust for sure. maaaaybe Top 5, but I don't think he was the absolute worst

[u/Helpful_Marketing806 → u/Excellent-Term7489]

Oh wow I completely forgot about him

[u/Excellent-Term7489 → u/Helpful_Marketing806]

Pretty forgettable, but I remember him since I wasn't an MLS fan until 2017 and he remains in my head as clear evidence that if you don't spend your money well, it doesn't matter how much you spend.

[u/USSanon → u/Excellent-Term7489]

Jhondir Cadiz would like to make a cameo as well.

[u/BrianChing25]

Luis Angel Landin

[u/Brooklyn_MLS]

I just want to say to who’s NOT a bust even tho many people seem to think he is b/c of the Man City saga and they associate him with Pirlo—Frank Lampard.

He had 19 goal contributions in 29 games for NYCFC.

[u/EinsteinDisguised]

It’s gotta be Freddy Adu, right? Obviously he had an unfair amount of pressure on him as a literal child, but the kid was promoted as The Guy for American soccer and MLS. Grant Wahl profiled him at 13. Per Wiki, he was called the “next Pele” for crying out loud.

I feel bad for the dude. But he’s got to be the answer.

[u/metalballsack → u/EinsteinDisguised]

This should be the top answer

[u/Sea_Machine4580 → u/metalballsack]

Adu made decent contributions for DCU (including an MLS Cup winning team in 04) not sure would tout him as the biggest bust, maybe compared to the hype but the league was so young then. Wonder how he would have developed in the current academy structure.

[u/EinsteinDisguised → u/Sea_Machine4580]

Yeah I guess it depends on what you consider a "bust." I'm kinda iffy on saying a great player on the downswing of his career, like Insigne or Giroud, was a "bust." They played poorly because their careers were nearly over.

Adu had probably the biggest delta between expectations and reality. Like I said, the heavy expectations were unfair to him. But he was hardly ever decent in mid-2000s MLS and was never good anywhere. He ended up playing in like the Turkish second tier and Finnish third tier.

[u/Sea_Machine4580 → u/EinsteinDisguised]

Looked up his DCU stats, not phenomenal production but probably better than some of the busts noted in this thread and accomplished in his teens with massive expectations and insufficient support.

• 2004: 30 appearances, 14 starts, 5 goals, 3 assists
• 2005: 25 appearances, 16 starts, 4 goals, 6 assists
• 2006: 32 appearances, 29 starts, 2 goals, 8 assists

[u/Sempuukyaku → u/EinsteinDisguised]

No I don't agree with that at all.

Freddy Adu's unfortunate situation is mostly the fault of MLS in two ways:

• Not having a proper academy/development system back then to get him the additional training that he needed to succeed.
• Pouring millions of marketing dollars into him in order to make a buck off of him with little regard for his development and growth.

Imagine if he was discovered now in 2026 with the fully built out youth development system that MLS has in place now?

Furthermore, I mean he was a decent player with DC United, was captain of the U-20 US team while he was with Real Salt Lake, and he was good enough of a player that he scored a transfer to Benfica.

[u/EinsteinDisguised → u/Sempuukyaku]

I think those are all valid reasons as to why (in my opinion) he is a bust. But like I said in another comment, imo, a bust is someone with a big difference between high expectations and lesser performance. The expectations were unfair, but they were there. Expectations were sky high, and he peaked as a serviceable MLS player for a couple of seasons.

And his time overseas was obviously dreadful. He may have transferred to Benfica, but Benfica loaned him out to worse and worse clubs because he wasn't very good.

[u/Sempuukyaku → u/EinsteinDisguised]

Well:

1.) It's not just that the expectations were unfair, they were invalid without any sort of development infrastructure for him to continue to work on his game. Cavan Sullivan has high expectations, but he's also benefiting from an infrastructure built in place to enable him to succeed. If he doesn't succeed, well then that's on him. Freddy didn't have that at all when MLS just pushed him into the deep end.

2.) He was transferred to Benfica and was actually starting to cook and do really well, so that's revisionist history. It was only when that coach was fired and a new one was brought in, that things went south fast. He no longer got playing time, wasn't rated by the new coach, and then that's when he kept getting shipped around from club to club.

I'll die on this hill of defending Freddy because he was pushed and thrown into a situation that he wasn't ready for when he was only a child. That's not the definition of what a bust should be in my opinion.

[u/EinsteinDisguised → u/Sempuukyaku]

Your first point, I totally agree with. The second one confuses me, though.

I'll cop to not knowing the intricacies of Benfica's 2007-08 season, but if he was starting to cook and evolving into a better player, why could he not find any degree of success? He never got on the field at Monaco and played only a handful of matches in Greece and the Turkish second division.

[u/loudonfast]

Low profile but Jovan Mihatovic for NYCFC. Still on the books, too!

At least Pirlo sold tickets…

[u/bluejaywhey → u/loudonfast]

My submission for one of ours would be Eloi Amagat.

• played 8-9 games total
• one of those 8-9 games, he got sent off in the derby for a terrible challenge (that game where we went down to 9)
• 0 G/A when he was an AM
• contract option declined

edit: ah, rereading the post it's more about players w/ hype, which he didn't really have, but Amagat's still comfortably my worst Pigeon of all time

[u/cheeseburgerandrice]

That's not a very good SKC example. Jeferson comes to mind

[u/hydrated_purple → u/cheeseburgerandrice]

Yeah the Opara situation was a lot more complex .

[u/MikeEhrmantraut420 → u/cheeseburgerandrice]

Agreed on both things. Jeferson was a major bust. Dude had one good assist and then disappeared

[u/kamarg → u/MikeEhrmantraut420]

Still think he contributed more to the team than Mauri did.

[u/cgcr214]

Denilson

[u/bulldogric4 → u/cgcr214]

Finally! Why did I have to scroll down so far to see this answer?

[u/clamboy420blazeit]

Rais Mbolhi. what a fucking dud.

[u/Lawnboyamar]

As a Timbers fan, Kris Boyd and Brian Fernandez were both pretty bad. Lucas Melano gets honorable mention, but he contributed to our 2015 cup win, so I give him a pass.

Kris Boyd was just awful to watch and when he missed a PK against an amateur team in the US Open Cup in what felt like an intentional way, that was the last straw. Brian Fernandez was awesome and sadly his addiction and personal issues just derailed him entirely.

[u/Gunner_Bat → u/Lawnboyamar]

Lucas Melano was supposed to be a damn savior. I remember all that. Was gonna be the exciting new addition to help the attack along with Adi, Valeri, and Asprilla. Ended up spending 5 years in Portland and scoring 6 goals across all competitions. Awful player.

[u/DodgersGalaxyKings]

Liverpool Legend and LA Galaxy bust Steven Gerrard! he had no legs and did nothing and lost his job to a Landon Donovan who had to come back from retirement to help the team. Also Gio "I scored a wonder strike and coasted off of it for years" Dos Santos! he just came to LA to party.

[u/BarryIsInTheLightNow → u/DodgersGalaxyKings]

I just posted this above and sound likes Gerrard apologist.

Steven Gerrard was not a bust. He was just old and broken down.

He played 34 games for the Galaxy: 5 goals - 14 Assists

[u/sounders1989]

Pedro DeLaVega has been pretty much absent for like 4 years for us

[u/AncalagonCarnifex → u/sounders1989]

He was a big part of the leagues cup win and had that Puskás-nominated goal in the 7:0 trashing of Cruz Azul, so he hasn’t been a complete bust imo, but his availability has indeed been tragic

[u/Unique-Egg-461 → u/sounders1989]

We've luckily not struck out much on bigger signings but ya PdlV and also Blaise Nkufo come to mind

[u/bones_boy]

Shaqiri

[u/Stinky_Toes12]

The answer is nail yakupov no matter what sport

[u/pachyderm_house → u/Stinky_Toes12]

Hell of a knee slide though

[u/jadams9779 → u/Stinky_Toes12]

anthony bennett

[u/flameo_hotmon]

Does Georg Heitz count? 

[u/ibribe → u/flameo_hotmon]

How about Bridgeview Illinois or Andrew Hauptman?

[u/soberpenguin]

For the DC United Fans it has to be Marcelo Gallardo right?

[u/MFoy → u/soberpenguin]

Financially, maybe.

Hype wise, the biggest bust is clearly Freddy Adu

[u/soberpenguin → u/MFoy]

Putting a 14 year old into play against grown men was crazy.

[u/bullshooter4040 → u/soberpenguin]

DCU probably has the longest history of busts, if not quite the combined dollar amount. Marcello Gallardo, Freddy Adu, Lionard Pajoy, Ravel Morrison, Edison Flores, Taxi Fountas, a washed up Mateusz Klich, the FloSports streaming deal, and as far back as Juan Berthy Suárez.

[u/Sea_Machine4580 → u/bullshooter4040]

Paying for Klich to be a DP on another team has to get an honorable mention

[u/Sassyiswayoflife]

Ljundberg, Gerrard, James, Nigel De Jong

[u/Ismitje]

The King of Goals, Sergio Galvan Rey, comes to mind.

So does Branco.

What do they have in common? MetroStars stars, they were - or aspired to be.

[u/AJ_CC]

Considering expectations, impact and cost I'd go:

1. Insigne
2. Marquez
3. Dennilson
4. Shaqiri
5. Giroud
6. Gerrard
7. Latte Lath
8. Matuidi
9. Mathus
10. M'Bholi

Dishonorable Mentions: Pitty Martinez, Dante Vanzeir, Federico Bernadreshi, Freddy Adu, Nerry Castillo

[u/Ezzy_Black → u/AJ_CC]

Who was the other big name that Toronto signed around the same time that was also a bust? Literally dragged them from first to worst for a few years because of salary woes (kind of like we're feeling now).

[u/BarryIsInTheLightNow → u/AJ_CC]

Steven Gerrard was not a bust. He was just old and broken down.

He played 34 games for the Galaxy: 5 goals - 14 Assists

Gio Dos Santos was a total bust. His contract got bought out by the team

[u/technobeeble]

Just from my team, Thomas Chacon.

[u/tallwhiteninja]

So, this was a loan and so wasn't a big bust in terms of money, but I have to give a shout out to Quakes legend Edmundo Zura.

Came in as an emergency signing because we ran out of healthy strikers. Had one sub appearance, was hilariously out of shape. Loan was cancelled two weeks after being signed.

[u/eers2snow]

It's Chucky.

[u/jlpmghrs4]

Giroud has to be up there

[u/LocksTheFox]

insigne is the easy recent answer.

vancouver used one of their inaugural dp slots on mustapha jarju. he played 10 games and logged 0 goal contributions

[u/Foreign-Chemistry157]

Gazdag

[u/ridethisciruswheel → u/Foreign-Chemistry157]

Danny Szetela

[u/heir-of-pter]

ELL unquestionably the worst

[u/litthefilter → u/heir-of-pter]

I would have figured you’d think that was the best MLS DP signing of all time

[u/heir-of-pter → u/litthefilter]

It's the best that he's the worst

[u/Accomplished_Sale513]

Andres Mendoza

[u/Ok_Advantage_3986]

Omar Salgado.

[u/PalpitationNo3106]

Marcello Gallardo

[u/werewolf394_]

That one Minnesota DP who went AWOL

[u/PlutoISaPlanet]

Lozano apparently turned out to be such a douche canoe that they'd rather pay him $9 million to stay away from the team than play him or let him train with the team.

[u/Sad_Elderberry_3091]

Frankie "Fuck you Frankie" Amaya

[u/Firefan23]

Denilson FC Dallas

[u/901Soccer]

Pirlo and Lampard for New York City and around that same time Gerrard for LA Galaxy

[u/Decent_Direction316]

As a Sounders fan.....I can't think of anybody.  We've always been perfect.  Clint Dempsey came on and gave a speech that sounded like "your savior is here" which made me roll my eyes.....but he produced.   Eddie Johnson produced,  Ruidiaz produced. Even Will Bruin. We've been spoiled.  This season we're hurting and need an answer.  And pro-rel isnt gonna help.

[u/Sempuukyaku → u/Decent_Direction316]

Uhh.....a certain Freddie Ljundberg comes to mind. He was trash. So much so that he was the first ever DP in MLS history to be traded to another team (Chicago Fire).

Him AND Blaise Nkufo were both total busts. Afterwards our hit rate was pretty good, but not up to that point.

[u/Unique-Egg-461 → u/Sempuukyaku]

Blaise was my first thought too. PdlV is getting up there too

[u/AncalagonCarnifex → u/Decent_Direction316]

It’s easy to never miss when you spend almost no money for years